Sliding switch



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` LOUIS KOVACS, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS..

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SLIDING SWITCH.

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Specification of Letters Patent. l

Patented nel. is, ieai.

Original application ledanuary 21, 1918. Serial No. 212,930. Divided and this application kfiled June 21, Y1919.y Serial No. 305,845. Y

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, Louis Kovacs, citizen of riustria-Ilungary, residing at Chicago,

Vuse the same.

My invention relates to electric switches and in one of its generalaspects aims to provideV` asimple and veffective type of switch having a slidable contact-closing member. In another aspect, my invention relates to secret switches and aims to provide an easily manufactured switch which will be operable by a sliding; contact while continuously concealing its mechanism from view, but without involving any uncertainty as to the operative position ofthe sliding! contact. In this last named aspect, my invention also aims to provide a switch of suchdesign and compactness that it can readily be mounted in the coverof a soi-called combination switch ywithout increasing` the size of the latter, thereby affording an vadditional se-V extent more detailed objectswill appear from the following specification and from the accompany- Ving drawings these g drawings being'reproduced from my copending application -,*,/:212,930, which has matured into Patent No. 1,310,354, issued July 15, 1919, of which the present application constitutes a division. In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a front elevation of' a combination switch embodying the sliding switch of'my invention and showing the same as it will appear when mounted on a dashboard Y of an automobile or theflike.-

Fig. 2 is a'central and vertical section through Fig. 1, showing also diagrammatically the connections to a storage battery and toa spark plug as included in the circuit controlled by the combination switch.

Fig. 3 is a sectiofn taken vertically through Fig. 2 along the line 3--3. Fig. 4t is an enlarged fragmentary v section taken along the lines 4--4 of Fig. 3.

ries circuit.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary similar section showing a desirable methodV of providing the contacts for the sliding switch of my invention.

Inthe embodiment of the drawings, the switch of my invention consists lprimarily of a air ofV contacts 1 and 2 disposed subi stantially flush with the opposite sides. of a channel 3 made ofinsulating material and hence adapted tobe electrically connected by a metal ring f1 which forms the exterior of a slide'adapted yto be moved back and forth'within the said channel. rlhe entire switch as thus arranged is here shown as mounted within the Vcover 5 of a dial switch,V

or so-called combination secret switch having two separately movable contact arms 6. and 7 adapted to close parts of a single se- VIn this case, the circuit is shown asextending from a battery 8 to a pair of .contacts 9 adapted `to be bridged by the contact 7, thence .to a spark plug and from the latter to another pair of contacts adapted to be bridged'by the contact arm 6. The two Vcontact arms are controlled respectively by separate handles 12 and 13 and the position of the contact arms is indicated to the initiated by pointers 14 .and 15 moving respectively over dials 16 and 17 as described more in detail in my said copending application.

product of the number of indications or sec tions on the two dials.

VWhile this number may be quite large in itself, the protection afforded by such a combinationswitch has not always proven adequate, for the reason that it does not take a suiiicient length of time for anyone to set oney of the indicators (such as the indicator 14) successively on each of its indications, andto spin the combination indicator entirely around the circle in each case. Consequently, even with an apparently large number' of possible combinations, it may take an intruder only a relatively short length of time to work the combination, ,so that this will not prove an adequate safeguard.

To vovercome this, I desirably provide an auxiliary combination switch also connect-V ed in series with the other contacts and cor-v respondingly multiplying the number of possible combinations. For example, if the auxiliary sliding switch of Figs. 1 and 2 has 'Ihenumber of possible combinations therefore obtainable would be the a sliding contact controlled in position by al knob 18 and has ten definite indicating positions for this knob, the number of possible combinations obtainable by the switch mechanism as a whole would be ten timeswhat they would be without the use of this auxiliary switch. Consequently, the old expedient used by automobile thieves of trying out the whole range ot'v combinations would require far too much time to be effective when the ordinary range of combination switch is greatly increased by the combination-'multiplying ei'lect of my sliding switch.

In building the switch ot my invention for the above described purpose, l desirably mount within the cover 5 of the combination switch a channel member 19 of insulatingr material having its opening directed toward the front of the cover, and equip the cover with an arcuate slot 2O extending in alinement with the center line of the channel. Projecting through this slot and slidablein it is a shank 2l. which connects the knob i8 with an insulating spool 22 carrying a contact ring 4. Then l mount upon the chan nel member 19 the contact members l and 2 which orm the circuit terminals connected by the contact ring 4 when the latter is in a predetermined position, these contact members l and 2 being dcsirably Hush with the bore of the channel so that. their location cannotbe felt by the hand moving the sliding members. To judge ofthe position of the sliding member, l provide the cover with a series oi markings, only one o1" which will correspond to the position in whichv the Vcontact element 4 bridges lacross the contacts l and 2. Then l conceal the position ot the contacts from view through the slot 20by a sliding plate 23 which is interposed between the front of the cover and the spool 22, and which therefore moves longitudinally of the channel and oi the slot 2() when the knob is moved.

rl`hus arranged, it will be obvious 'from the drawings that by moving-the knob i8 from one to another of the adyaocnt 'indicating markings on the cover, can set the contact ring 4 at any one of a series or positions, in only one of which positions it would coperate with the contact arms 6 and 7 in closingthe circuit from the battery 8 to the spark plug 10. lt rwill also be evident that the ordinary cover of the dial combination switch readily atloi'ds a mounting for such Y a sliding switch, and that the auxiliary sliding switch can readily be added `to .such a A kcombination switch without .increasing the'- f size of the combination switch.

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' can be simply and cheaply made by using Furthermore the connections to the sliding switch wire terminal screws having shanks of reduced diameter forming the contacts 1 and -2, as clearly shown in the enlarged view of Fig. 5. However, while l have illustrated and described the switch of my invention as being built in a curved form so as to embody the same compactly within the cover oit' a dial combination switch, and as .having the cover of this combination switch as its own cover, i do not wish to be limited to these or other details of the construction and arrangement here disclosed, it being obvious that the same might be niodiiied in many ways without departing from the spirit of v the appended claims.

l claim as my invention:

n l. ln an electric switch, a channel-sec tioned member ot insulating material, a pair of wire terminals mounted thereon and eX- tending substantially flush with the bore of the channel at opposite sides thereof, a concealing plate continuously closing the' mouth of the channel and longer than the latter and having a perforation, a cover over the concealing plate having a slotvin alinement with the said perforation and the axis or" the channel and having indicating markings thereon,

`and perforationV into the channel, and a metal'switching element carried by the handle member and bridgin the said wire terminals when the handle member is opposite i a predetermined one of the' indicating marl ings on the cover.

2. In a secret switch, a channel sectioned member or' insulating material, a cover for the same equipped with a slot extending longitudinally thereof, a contact member disposed within the channel of thek said member and slidable therein, a handle secured to the Contact member and extending through said slot,a pair of wire terminals extending into the channel oi the said member and disposed vfor contacting simultaneously with the con tact member when the latter is in a predeterminedpostion, and a strip of opaque material longer than the said slot and fast with respect to tho contact member and disposed for concealing the interior of the channel sectioned member from view through the said slot. An electric switch asv per claim l, in which the wireterminals comprise a pair ot ,paralleli screwsV threaded into the channelvsectioned member and having unthrea'ded ystem portions dis-posedv respectively at opposite sides of the bore of the channel.

SignedA at Chicago, "Illinois, June 18th,

' Louis Kovacs. 

